Reuters 

HANOI, Vietnam Vietnamese authorities arrested an outspoken Roman Catholic priest Thursday, accusing him of fomenting unrest against the government, a criminal offense.

The Rev. Nguyen Van Ly was detained for failing to obey surveillance rules and agitating followers to cause public disorder, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said. Police said Ly was taken into custody at his parish home in Phu An near the central city of Hue. 

"He was arrested for spreading propaganda against the government," officer Nguyen Van Quang of the Phu An commune police said. 

The charges Ly faces carry penalties of 10 to 12 years in prison, triggering alarm among government critics in Orange County's Little Saigon and around the world.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, said she was outraged by reports of increased arrests of religious figures, and called on Secretary of State Colin Powell in a statement to "put diplomatic pressure on the government of Vietnam to free these brave religious leaders."

The Vietnamese government says such comments are "gross interference" in its internal affairs. 

A longtime critic of the government, Ly previously spent nearly 10 years in prison and was on Amnesty International's list of prisoners of conscience. 

On Wednesday, he led a religious service of about 150 people and distributed anti-communist leaflets, the government said.

He previously had been under police surveillance and official media denounced him in March as a "traitor" for urging the United States to link religious freedom to ratification of a trade agreement. 

"(Ly) continued to carry out behavior that affected public security and obstructed production and normal life of the people," said Thanh, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

Ly's detention coincided with a report that a dissident Buddhist leader was summoned for questioning in Ho Chi Minh City./. 
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Published in the San Jose Mercury News 

World News in Brief VIETNAM
Police arrest priest on sedition charges

Agents from the Ministry of Public Security arrested a leading Roman Catholic priest Thursday, removing him from his parish residence as he was preparing to say Mass at a village church near the central city of Hue.

Government officials in Hanoi and Catholic sources in Hue confirmed the arrest of the Rev. Nguyen Van Ly, 55, a longtime critic of the communist government and its policies on religion. Police charged him with violating his probation by ``seriously and shamelessly committing seditious acts causing social disturbance.''

Ly was first arrested in 1977 for distributing anti-government writings. He was sent to a labor camp where he served only a few months of a 20-year sentence. He was arrested again in 1983, spent nine years in prison and has been under house arrest ever since.

He has continued to provoke the authorities by criticizing their tight control of all religious practices in Vietnam. In November, he circulated a 10-point statement in which he called the government's policies ``a noose around the
neck of religion.''./.

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Transcript: Adm. Blair on China, Regional Security Issues 
(Blair: U.S. hopes China will follow international rules) (5830)

The key question for the Asia-Pacific region is whether or not China will develop its power and influence "in a cooperative way that follows international rules," Admiral Dennis C. Blair, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command said in a May 16 press roundtable in Bangkok, Thailand.

Blair reflected on recent actions by the Chinese military, including China's controversial territorial claims in the region.

"To what extent does China follow those rules that we all agreed on? Or to what extent, when it has military power that it can bring to bear, is it going to set up its own rules?" Blair asked.

Southeast Asian nations have the same hopes and expectations as the United States that China "will become a responsible member of the community playing by the rules that we all agree on," Blair said.

Following is a transcript of Admiral Blair's May 16 press roundtable in Bangkok, Thailand:

(begin transcript)

Press Roundtable with Admiral Blair, USCINCPAC Bangkok, Thailand
May 16, 2001

Asian Wall Street Journal: Did you receive requests for more counter satellite surveillance or are you already providing it? What kind of assistance do you provide in that area?

Admiral Blair: There's a very important program based on satellite sensors which we are partially finished with the Royal Thai Army and that is accurate digital mapping with high accuracy of Thailand itself including particularly the border areas where maps tend to be sketchy. We have delivered a part of that program. This is a contract. The Thais are paying for it, but it's using the high quality, primarily satellite-based, imagery that the United States has available to build good maps for that part of the area. That program is very much under way. In addition, more generally, we have an arrangement of sharing intelligence with Thailand on counter-narcotics, as well as exchanges on other subjects, so many of the forms of US intelligence that are available that would useful to Thailand in that area are shared. I don't want to go into what sort of sources and where they came from but it's a good program.

Financial Times: I wanted to ask you a question a bit further a field about the United States' emerging security relationship, if there is one, with Vietnam. The two countries have cooperated on MIA search for a long time and I wondered how things are looking for future expansion especially giving Vietnam's long standing concerns about China and unresolved issues in the South China Sea?

Admiral Blair: I would tell you that the military cooperation is still at a fairly low level. I myself was to take a trip to Vietnam last year. I guess it was earlier this year and just before I was due to go in the Vietnamese cancelled the visit invitation because they were busy with other things. So I haven't really had the chance to talk directly with the Vietnamese. We had hoped that the Vietnamese observer team would be here for the Cobra Gold exercise. I'm told by my Thai colleagues that they are having some pretty good conversations with the Vietnamese about the counter drug problem. The Vietnamese certainly have shared the interest that we all do in a peaceful settlement of the disputes in the South China Sea, sovereignty disputes. The evidence there is mixed. China and Vietnam signed an agreement which demarcated part of the water boundary up in the northern Gulf of Tonkin. But there are still large areas in which they are overlapping. For our part in the armed forces of United States, we're perfectly ready to establish a basic level of cooperation with the armed forces of Vietnam on topics of common interest: search and rescue, the sorts of exercises that we are practicing here in Cobra Gold, exchanges of visits and experts, functional experts, high level visits and so on. So I think that it's in our interests of both countries to develop that basic military dialogue but we still haven't started that yet.

Financial Times: Do you think that it's under pressure from China that Vietnam decided not to participate in Cobra Gold this time or to send its observer team?

Admiral Blair: No I think it was Vietnam's own decision that they're sort of sorting out how they want to approach it. I also think when my visit was cancelled it wasn't due to any kind of external pressure. It was just that they weren't as organized internally as they will be in the future. I think that they just haven't quite sorted it out yet.

Asian Wall Street Journal: I mean given the somewhat more tense relationship between the United States and China at present do you see a growing role for Southeast Asia in sort of acting between the two blocks, or are you worried that the kind of internal conflict within Southeast Asia which is sometimes sort of referred as a balkanization
of Southeast Asia, do you think that's undermining ASEAN and the ASEAN Regional Forum's ability to act, or provide a useful sort of forum for resolving regional security tensions?

Admiral Blair: I really look at it in a somewhat different way. There are a range of issues which really cut across countries and the region. And the best way forward is to, is for regional cooperation on the issues for which we share goals, and then to work separately those that have differences. I don't see a big role for third parties nor third organizations to really act as middlemen. I think that our relationships are mature enough now that we can deal with one another pretty directly. But I think that the principal of dealing in groups on common problems is a good one for this part of the world. And many times that dealing together would include the United States and China and nations of Southeast Asia. There's sort of a litany (of issues) from those areas that are in my particular concern: anti-piracy, search and rescue capabilities, working against hostage takers, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and peace operations of the kind that are going on in East Timor. So it seems to me that the countries of the ASEAN regional forum can find many areas in which it's in our interest to work together. I think that's really a healthier way than sort of someone acting as midwife for one or two other countries, particularly the United States or China.

Bangkok Post: The Chinese prime minister is arriving over the weekend, did this come up and did our prime minister offer to do anything with regard to the NMD issue which is very controversial between US and China?

Admiral Blair: We didn't really discuss that subject.

The Nation: Did Prime Minister Thaksin assure to you that Thai-US relations would not lose importance, given the fact that he recently at his speech recently, give rise that Thailand would be somewhat changed its approach in terms of security and political cooperation with the US?

Admiral Blair: I'm not sure what policies you are referring to but the discussions I had with Prime Minister Thaksin were very consistent and supportive of the Thai-US military relationship, both in its bilateral aspects based on our mutual defense treaty, and also on the expanded multi-national activities which we sponsor together. Cobra Gold is really the biggest example (of that). So I sensed a great deal of continuity and common commitment to these traditional links between our countries and I didn't sense great changes. I sense a commitment to really work in the direction that we're headed.

Far Eastern Economic Review: Admiral has China made know to you either officially or unofficially it's concern about having US ground troops so close to its border in Northern Thailand based there now with this
task force?

Admiral Blair: No.

Far Eastern Economic Review:  And earlier I asked you when....
Admiral Blair: See we need to be clear on this, it's a Thai task force. US trainers are there, not US members of some joint task force permanently stationed with American servicemen in Thailand. OK.
Far Eastern Economic Review:  They will be instructors.

Admiral Blair: They will be temporary instructors for a period of time and then they go back home.

Far Eastern Economic Review: Well anyhow sir, How many will there be from the US and when officially will this task force will start operating?

Admiral Blair: I think that's really for the Thais to answer. I know the planning factors that we're working towards but it's really their decision as to when to bring the capability online.

South China Morning Post: Admiral late last year you talked quite a lot about your, the US idea of developing security communities in the region. I was just wondering half a year on and particularly after the spat with China how that's going?

Admiral Blair: I think it's going well. The activities that were really ideas six months ago when I talked are really gaining traction. I mentioned in my opening statement the progress of exercise Cobra Gold which is part of a series of exercises that we call Team Challenge has really cast a wider net than Cobra Gold here in Thailand. In addition, I met at the Cobra Gold exercise with a group of about twenty staff officers from 5 or 6 different countries who are part of our multi-lateral planning augmentation team. These are staff officers who are working up procedures so that the international staff such as the one that was formed in East Timor a couple of years ago can be more effective, more quickly, than we were able to do previously. Our web site--the Asia Pacific Information Exchange Network--is gaining more and more subscribers everyday. (These are) military officers who are down loading information on multinational tasks or posting information on it and they're dealing with lots of the non governmental organizations who are also involved in these complex contingencies that we face around the world. We had a Chiefs of Defense conference last November in Hawaii in which some sixteen Chiefs of Defense from the Asian Pacific region sat down for a day and half. They closed the door, threw out all the briefers, and just talked about common problems--really Chief of Defense to Chief of Defense--in which many areas of common ground came up. And although that's not a forum for making agreements, there were certainly a lot of commonality of the tasks we faced there. So I think many of the common tasks are becoming increasingly recognized and cooperation is a way to address them and is becoming more and more accepted. As you characterized, the spats between the United States and China recently certainly emphasized that there's a mixture of interest in the region.

Many of them are common opportunities that I believe the security communities can work on. But there remain points of friction which we have to continue to manage in the first place, and overcome in the long term. I think most of us feel that the objective is to widen this area of cooperation, isolate the points of friction so that we think in this more balanced way of both cooperation--looking for opportunities--as well as points of friction which we look at in terms of rivalry or confrontation. I've really been reinforced in my thinking by events since we last talked that this approach of
enhancing our regional cooperation working ultimately toward security communities is the right way to go. I've seen increasing support for it around the region.

South China Morning Post: Is there any sign that China would support that approach because I think you said last time that there's no reason that China couldn't get involved in these arrangements?

Admiral Blair: Right. China was invited by Thailand and by the United States to send an observer team to Cobra Gold. Their reply just before the EP3 incident was that they looked forward to coming next year--that is, 2002. When I talked with the Chinese during a visit in February of this year, I guess it was February or March, again before the EP3 incident, I talked implicitly about these areas for cooperation. It's quite clear that the Chinese are thinking about that sort of activity but it would be new for them. It's not part of their military tradition or part of their regional practice to date, but they have, for example, sent some officers to our Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies earlier this year. As I said, they had replied that they would be interested in sending an observer team to Cobra Gold next year. So there are signs that they are thinking in those terms. But since we've had these recent issues between the United States and China, the EP3 in particular, that has put a damper on our military to military contacts to continue those discussions. But I think all of us recognize, and I heard Secretary Powell, for example, talking as recently as yesterday, that this relationship between China and the United States has both cooperative and confrontational aspects. We need to work forward emphasizing cooperation as well as drawing the lines where we feel we have to. So I think we are going to make progress. It's a movie, not a single still shot.

Asian Wall Street Journal: But are you to agree that the relationship with China since the EP3 has now become sort of more adversarial and are you concerned about particularly not just the EP3 incident but, for example, (China's) challenge to the Australian naval group, are you concerned that this is diminishing the freedom of navigation in controversial areas like South China Sea and Taiwan Strait?

Admiral Blair: Yes I was concerned by those incidents. I think really the issue for China there is the same as the issue in their territorial claims in the South China Sea. The issue is to what extent is China going to follow the international standards to which it has agreed. China ratified the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty in 1996. So the issue is to what extent does China follow those rules that we all agreed on? Or to what extent, when it has military power that it can bring to bear, is it going to set up its own rules right now that (when something is) close to its borders (will they set up their own rules when it affects) other places? I think the important question for the region is how is China going to develop its power and influence, will it be in a cooperative way that follows international rules? Or when China doesn't like some particular activity which is allowed by international rules but which doesn't go along with what it wants at a particular time, is it going to try to change it and try to make up its own rules? I am concerned by that thread that really pulls together a number of activities that we see by China in this part of world. I'm happy to say that in time our EP3 crew was released and we're negotiating about the airplane. We plan to have discussions about these subjects with China. I think the way forward is to reach a common understanding that we all will follow in these regions. I just think that it is very, very important for the region rather than simply relying on military activities to set the rules.

Asian Wall Street Journal: Apart from the EP3 incident what are the other "threads" that are giving you concern?

Admiral Blair: I'd say the other "threads" primarily have to do with south China Sea activities and the Chinese commitment to agreeing on a code of conduct. I think finishing off that code of conduct on the South China Sea is very, very important to allowing economic development to take place in the region rather than making it a region where gun boats clash and airplanes clash and there are fishing wars. So I'd say the main two that I look at have to do with agreements about maritime areas around China.

Financial Times: I guess I wanted to ask you in your discussions with Thailand and other dialogue partners in the region in ASEAN also how much do they also express to you this concern about whether China is going to play by the international rules or simply make up its own rules as it grows more powerful?

Admiral Blair: It's something we discuss and I think their hopes and expectations are the same as ours: that China will become a responsible member of the community playing by the rules that we all agree on. I think we all agree that's a very important question for the region as China develops.

The Nation: Just would like to go back to Cobra Gold issues, besides expanding the observers are you looking towards expanding the Cobra Gold participants from the existing three members?

Admiral Blair: Yes we are. We would welcome many more members as actual participants in Cobra Gold as well as observer teams.

The Nation: Has any particular country expressed their interest in joining the exercise or has any criteria been set for them to join?

Admiral Blair: The nine countries that did send observer teams are all interested in, are all considering the question of participation in the future. In our discussions with Thailand, neither Thailand nor we set conditions on participating. In fact, it's quite a flexible exercise. A country can, depending upon resources or its own training needs, participate in one section of it. It's a two-week exercise with a pretty complex set of scenarios. A country can choose to participate in some of it or all of it. Or can also choose to observe and really take away procedures that it can use in the future in international operations. So it really is quite flexible in terms of meeting the training needs of the countries and we emphasize that with the observer teams.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

May 18, 2001 

Dow Jones Newswires
U.S. Asks Vietnam To Release Arrested Catholic Priest
Dow Jones Newswires

HANOI (AP)--The U.S. urged Vietnam Friday to release an arrested Catholic priest and allow him and others to express their religious views without interference.

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly discussed the priest's arrest in talks with Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien, a U.S. Embassy official said.

Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly's arrest Thursday is the latest in a series of recent actions by the Communist government against members of non-approved religious groups.

Ly, 54 years old, had urged in testimony to a U.S. government committee in February that the U.S. Congress delay ratification of a bilateral trade pact until Vietnam eases restrictions on religion.

The U.S. Embassy said it was "very concerned" about his arrest.

"The ambassador and other U.S. officials have raised our strong concerns with the Vietnamese government and urged that Father Ly be returned to his church residence," it said in a statement. "We also have urged that Father Ly and other religious leaders in Vietnam be allowed to express their religious views without interference."

Vietnam's government forbids religious activities by unapproved organizations and recognizes only seven religious groups. It remains highly suspicious of independent churches and accuses several of anti-government activity.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said Ly was arrested for "seriously and brazenly" violating the country's laws and "damaging social order and security."

Ly had been placed under administrative detention, the equivalent of house arrest, by the government following his testimony to the U.S. committee. In March, the government also banned him from running his church.

He was arrested for violating his detention order, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Police also have recently intensified their round-the-clock surveillance of leaders of another religious group, the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, according to Thich Quang Do, a prominent dissident monk.

On Friday, a court official said a judge in southern Vietnam had convicted two members of another dissident Buddhist group on charges of creating a public disturbance and attacking police.

Truong Van Duc, 58, was sentenced to 12 years in jail, and Ho Van Trong, 76, was given a four-year term in the May 11 trial, the court official said.

A police report said Duc participated in a rally in December organized by Le Quang Liem, the leader of a dissident faction of the Hoa Hao Buddhist sect, at a shrine in the Tan Phu district of southern An Giang province.

The government officially recognized the Hoa Hao sect, which claims more than 1 million members, two years ago after a government-approved leadership was put in place. Liem leads a faction that objects to the government-installed leadership.

In February, the government quelled protests by thousands of mainly Protestant members of ethnic minorities in Vietnam's Central Highlands over land grievances and restrictions on unauthorized "house churches."

The government has continued to maintain heavy police control in the area.